430. The Commonwealth's Greediest Stamp Producers 2013.

  Clearly (Mozambique) is striving to maintain its position at the top of the Commonwealth Greediest postal administrations table for yet another year but it may find a fight on its hands from Royal Mail or Solomon Islands. (Blog 264, 29 June 2013 - "The Commonwealth's Greediest Post Offices 2012").

  And so it was to be. All three of the above proved to be the 3 greediest postal administrations in The Commonwealth in terms of number of stamps issued during 2013. Another year of pride for Royal Mail as it finds itself in the top three group with two of the countries which allow Stamperija to produce philatelic products in their name. 

 The table of number of stamps, miniature sheets and booklets issued during 2013 is as follows:-

1. Mozambique - 675 stamps and 150 miniature sheets. Total 825 items;
2. Solomon Islands - 541 stamps and 121 m.s.. Total 662 items;
3. Royal Mail (British postal service) 277 stamps (includes definitive varieties and Post And Go stamps), 8 m.s. (does not include Smilers Generic sheets or Business sheets) and 11 booklets. Total 296 items;
4. Grenada (includes Grenada Grenadines) - 245 stamps and 47 m.s. Total 292 items;
5. Australia Post (includes issues inscribed for Australian Antarctic Territory, Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands) - 239 stamps and 21 m.s. (prestige booklets and souvenir sheets not included, self-adhesive varieties from booklets are included as stamps rather than as booklets). Total 260 items;
6. Maldives - 164 stamps and 41 m.s. Total 205 items;
7. Guyana - 140 stamps and 21 m.s. Total 161 items;
8. Ghana - 120 stamps and 47 m.s. Total 147 items;
9. Uganda - 120 stamps and 23 m.s. Total 143 items;
10. The Gambia (issues until 3 October 2013 when The Gambia left The Commonwealth) - 118 stamps and 23 m.s. Total 141 items;
11. Tanzania - 120 stamps and 14 m.s. Total 134 items;
12. Cook Islands (includes Aitutaki, Penrhyn and Rarotonga) - 114 stamps and 15 m.s. Total 129 items;
13. Canada Post - 102 stamps (self-adhesive stamps from booklets are included as stamps rather than in a separate category of booklets) and 18 m.s. Total 120 items;
14. India - 109 stamps and 10 m.s. Total 119 items;
15. (14=) New Zealand Post (includes Ross Dependency) - 100 stamps and 9 m.s. Total 119 items;
16. Kenya - 102 stamps and 1 m.s. Total 102 items;
17. Nevis - 95 stamps and 16 m.s. Total 111 items;
18. South Africa - 102 stamps and 5 m.s. and 1 booklet. Total 108 items;
19. Tonga (includes Niuafo'ou) - 85 stamps and 15 m.s. Total 100 items;
20. Jersey - 85 stamps and 9 m.s. and 1 booklet. Total 95 items;
21. Sierra Leone - 80 stamps and 14 m.s. Total 94 items;
22. St. Vincent And The Grenadines (does not include items with the names of individual island printed on them) - 71 stamps and 22 m.s.. Total 93 items;
23. Papua New Guinea - 70 stamps and 19 m.s. Total 89 items;
24. (23=) Tuvalu - 76 stamps and 13 m.s. Total 89 items;
25. Isle Of Man - 74 stamps and 5 m.s. Total 79 items.

  This is a fascinating list which shows that during 2013 the mad scramble by postal administrations and agencies to put products on the philatelic market to squeeze every last penny/cent out of collectors continued unabated. It has the air of desperation about it and for some postal administrations represents a national disgrace. It is deeply humiliating for the British and Australian postal administrations to find themselves adopting the same attitude towards collectors of new stamp issues as some of the more notorious philatelic agencies and represents a real contempt for their long-term customers who may not be long-term for very much longer.

  Not everything is bad. The list of the top ten of postal administrations with a modest approach to the issue of new stamps is as follows:-

1. Cameroon - 0 items;
2. (1=) Lesotho - 0 items;
3. (1=) Nauru - 0 items;
4. (1=) Rwanda - 0 items;
5. (1=) Seychelles - 0 items;
6. Nigeria - 2 stamps. Total 2 items;
7. British Indian Ocean Territory - 4 stamps. Total 4 items;
8. (7=) British Virgin Islands - 4 stamps Total 4 items;
9. (7=) Swaziland - 4 stamps. Total 4 items;
10. Malawi - 5 stamps and 1 m.s. Total 6 items.